There is something about a 1911 that you can't find in any other gun, an unmatched reliability, perfect ergonomics, the worlds greatest trigger, there is just a feeling you get with a 1911 that you can't get with any other gun- a feeling that says "this is what a gun should feel like, this is a real gun", the fact that the gun has been around for over 100 years and has not been changed, and the fact that the 1911 is the most American thing on earth.

They look cool and have quite a history. They were basically obsolete when John Browning himself invented the P-35 a quarter century later.

You see, just having been the US Military sidearm for most of our lifetimes make the caliber and the gun an instant success commercially and in our collective psyche. They were our sidearm in the two world wars that brought us from an also-ran to the world's only super-power in a couple of generations. And pop-culture made them an icon even after Vietnam.